Romans 8: 28-30; Psalm 13; Matthew 1: 1-16, 18-23
Matthew’ s genealogy traces Jesus’ ancestry from Abraham through Joseph, his legal father. It includes four women, three unfaithful in love and Ruth, so faithful. Jesus is like us in all things, born from a sinful and graced family. What this family tree has to do with Mary is puzzling. We know nothing from the gospels; Joachim and Anne are featured in an imaginative legend that circulated after our four gospels were selected.
What does have to do with Mary and with all of us today is the Romans passage. Jesus is the firstborn, and we all follow him into justification and into glory. “We know that everything works together for the good for those whom God loves.”
How and when has that “working together for good”—your good-- been true in your life? Remember and give thanks! Mary is like us in all things, finding God in all the events of her life and pondering them in her heart. Ask the Spirit what you might need to ponder today. Listen.
May we come to share the divinity of the firstborn, who emptied himself to share our humanity. Thank you, God for our pioneers, Jesus and Mary.